High School: High school played a huge role in where I am academically today. Some teachers did their job and taught while others did not. When I was a sophomore I took Chemistry. The teacher was an older guy who was very close to retiring. He would not teach at all. We would have worksheets that had to be completed by test day, but either he gave us the answers in class or we would just put down random answers since we would just glance through them and not actually read them. Every Tuesday we would watch a movie and every Wednesday we had lab which was nothing too challenging. The day before a test he would give us a study guide and as a class we would fill in the answers together. He would then tell us that the study guide was the same thing as the test. Kids would either memorize the correct answers on the study guide, write down the multiple choice letter order on their hand, or sometimes kids would even take out the review sheet during the test. Since we had all the answers given to us on a silver platter I never properly learned Chemistry. My grade was amazing in the class, but if I had to take Chemistry right now it would be a struggle. In high school I participated in Girls' Show which I talked about briefly in my introduction. Girls' Show started in 1941 and it was for girls to stay athletic since sports were very minimal for girls at this time. In 1980, Passaic Valley administrators cancelled it due to hazing allegations, but it was brought back in 1985. Girls' Show consists of a green team and a white team to represent the school colors. Each team is made up of three main events: dance, exercise, and cheer. Each main event can only take a certain number of girls so if you want to participate you must go to try out week. I was on Green exercise all four years. We tryout in he beginning of November and we practiced every single day for somewhere between 3 to 6 hours until the show which was either the very end of February or the beginning of March. Exercise consisted of 20 girls that had to all do a 10 minute routine perfectly and sharp. We had to all be stiff so nothing jiggled which we were performing and if we did not have bruises all over our bodies then we were doing it wrong. The advisors of the show hired judges and at the end of the night the president of Girls' Show would call an event and would raise the flag of the color that won. When I tried out my freshman year I knew that green exercise had lost for 13 years in a row, but I was okay with being on a losing team. My freshman year our theme was Cat Woman and unfortunately lost which meant that we had now been losing for 14 years. My sophomore our team improved quite a bit and our theme was even a little more interesting. We were Captain of America. Sadly, we lost again. It was torture knowing that our team had been losing for 15 years in a row. Junior year came around and our theme was Avatar. I remember sitting on the gym floor as the president called our event. I held hands with my teammates as she did a little flag performance in the middle of the floor before holding up the winning flag. There it was. The green flag was still raised in the air and the white flag was put down. My entire team as well as some of the green crowd stood up and started crowded the middle of the gym. We were all crying in shock! I can not even describe the feeling I got when our flag rose. We did something so historic for our team and all the former green exercise members that lost in the previous years. We even got gifts sent to our houses from some of the alumni. It was a pretty big deal in our school. Then my senior year came along and our theme was Phantom of the Opera and guess what? The green flag rose again. It was the most perfect way to end my senior year! This definitely shaped the way I go about certain things in life. We set a goal which was obviously winning and we accomplished it. This made me realize that I could do anything I wanted in life as long as I stick to it and give it my all. It taught me to never give up because if you give up you lose the opportunity to even reach your goal. My most influential teacher in high school was my Physics teacher. He would always encourage me to try harder when I wanted to give up. If there was a problem I did not understand he would work it out with me until I knew what I was doing. He never, not once doubted me. Besides being a good teacher and helping me out he also told me to follow my passion in life. I told him how I wanted to be a teacher an how my mom was not thrilled bout it because in New Jersey the governor did not really like the teachers. He told me to do whatever makes me happy and he was always positive. At the end of the yearbook he wrote me a little paragraph and at the end he wrote, "You're going to be a fantastic teacher." It made me so happy to read that! Another influential person was my javelin coach. He would give us advice that would help with life situations, but also somehow related to the javelin. He was extremely dedicated to the people who wanted to be there and get better. He would come to practice on Saturdays if I felt like I needed to get more practice in before a meet. He truly loved his job and I think it is really important that people love what they end up doing in life. That is what makes teachers and coaches so influential. It is nice knowing that they care about you and that they want you to succeed.
High school played a huge role in where I am academically today. Some teachers did their job and taught while others did not. When I was a sophomore I took Chemistry. The teacher was an older guy who was very close to retiring. He would not teach at all. We would have worksheets that had to be completed by test day, but either he gave us the answers in class or we would just put down random answers since we would just glance through them and not actually read them. Every Tuesday we would watch a movie and every Wednesday we had lab which was nothing too challenging. The day before a test he would give us a study guide and as a class we would fill in the answers together. He would then tell us that the study guide was the same thing as the test. Kids would either memorize the correct answers on the study guide, write down the multiple choice letter order on their hand, or sometimes kids would even take out the review sheet during the test. Since we had all the answers given to us on a silver platter I never properly learned Chemistry. My grade was amazing in the class, but if I had to take Chemistry right now it would be a struggle.
In high school I participated in Girls' Show which I talked about briefly in my introduction. Girls' Show started in 1941 and it was for girls to stay athletic since sports were very minimal for girls at this time. In 1980, Passaic Valley administrators cancelled it due to hazing allegations, but it was brought back in 1985. Girls' Show consists of a green team and a white team to represent the school colors. Each team is made up of three main events: dance, exercise, and cheer. Each main event can only take a certain number of girls so if you want to participate you must go to try out week. I was on Green exercise all four years. We tryout in he beginning of November and we practiced every single day for somewhere between 3 to 6 hours until the show which was either the very end of February or the beginning of March. Exercise consisted of 20 girls that had to all do a 10 minute routine perfectly and sharp. We had to all be stiff so nothing jiggled which we were performing and if we did not have bruises all over our bodies then we were doing it wrong. The advisors of the show hired judges and at the end of the night the president of Girls' Show would call an event and would raise the flag of the color that won. When I tried out my freshman year I knew that green exercise had lost for 13 years in a row, but I was okay with being on a losing team. My freshman year our theme was Cat Woman and unfortunately lost which meant that we had now been losing for 14 years. My sophomore our team improved quite a bit and our theme was even a little more interesting. We were Captain of America. Sadly, we lost again. It was torture knowing that our team had been losing for 15 years in a row. Junior year came around and our theme was Avatar. I remember sitting on the gym floor as the president called our event. I held hands with my teammates as she did a little flag performance in the middle of the floor before holding up the winning flag. There it was. The green flag was still raised in the air and the white flag was put down. My entire team as well as some of the green crowd stood up and started crowded the middle of the gym. We were all crying in shock! I can not even describe the feeling I got when our flag rose. We did something so historic for our team and all the former green exercise members that lost in the previous years. We even got gifts sent to our houses from some of the alumni. It was a pretty big deal in our school. Then my senior year came along and our theme was Phantom of the Opera and guess what? The green flag rose again. It was the most perfect way to end my senior year! This definitely shaped the way I go about certain things in life. We set a goal which was obviously winning and we accomplished it. This made me realize that I could do anything I wanted in life as long as I stick to it and give it my all. It taught me to never give up because if you give up you lose the opportunity to even reach your goal.
My most influential teacher in high school was my Physics teacher. He would always encourage me to try harder when I wanted to give up. If there was a problem I did not understand he would work it out with me until I knew what I was doing. He never, not once doubted me. Besides being a good teacher and helping me out he also told me to follow my passion in life. I told him how I wanted to be a teacher an how my mom was not thrilled bout it because in New Jersey the governor did not really like the teachers. He told me to do whatever makes me happy and he was always positive. At the end of the yearbook he wrote me a little paragraph and at the end he wrote, "You're going to be a fantastic teacher." It made me so happy to read that! Another influential person was my javelin coach. He would give us advice that would help with life situations, but also somehow related to the javelin. He was extremely dedicated to the people who wanted to be there and get better. He would come to practice on Saturdays if I felt like I needed to get more practice in before a meet. He truly loved his job and I think it is really important that people love what they end up doing in life. That is what makes teachers and coaches so influential. It is nice knowing that they care about you and that they want you to succeed.